About to get new glasses. What coatings to get? (1 Viewer)

[Kwang Suh]

Kwang, I think that's true for all glasses, with or without the anti-glare coating.

Well, my first pair of glasses which had nothing on them, I could clean them with anything

 

[Craig Chatterton]

Woohoo! My prescription didn't change all that much. That's always a relief. They told me there's a new scratch coating out called Crizal which has a two year guarantee (if your lense gets scratched, they replace them for free), so I went for that. But no AR and I got very nice frames - the kind that spring back to shape if you bend them.

I do have one question though. I wanted the doc to give me an exam and prescription for glasses but just write one for contacts (so I could buy some next paycheck). He said he couldn't do both, I'd have to get a second exam just for the contacts. What's up with that? Aren't they the same?

 

[Kwang Suh]

I do have one question though. I wanted the doc to give me an exam and prescription for glasses but just write one for contacts (so I could buy some next paycheck). He said he couldn't do both, I'd have to get a second exam just for the contacts. What's up with that? Aren't they the same?

Nope. You'll need another exam for contacts. They do some additional stuff with your eyes for that exam. Ignore the needles, they're for examination purposes only

 

[Eric Kahn]

Glass only, gave up on plastic, scratched way to easily and always had a large amount of distortion at the edges that I have never had with glass

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Where the hell is everybody getting their glasses from? Man, talk about low quality. I have no problems with my glasses, and they're extremely light and thin.

:rolleyes
Chromatic aberration is not a factor of where you get your glasses, it is a factor of what the lenses are made of, the strength of your prescription, how far off-axis what you are looking at is, and how far away it is.
Optical material has an abbe value; the lower the abbe value, the higher the chromatic aberration.
The polycarbonate used in the vast majority of 'featherweight' lenses has an abbe value of 30. 'Spectralite' is better with an abbe of 47; this is a decent compromise for some people. 'Regular' (CR39) plastic has a much better abbe of 58, which is damned near clear glass with an abbe of 59!
I have discussed this at length with opticians. The truth of the matter is that most people just don't have a critical eye to notice it (chromatic aberration); just like most people don't notice mpeg artifacts or the flattening of depth created by digital noise reduction. If you don't have a critical eye, be glad! It's a curse to be so visually aware.
Anyhow, contact lenses have virtually no chromatic aberration.

 

[teapot2001]

What's the opinion on UV filtering?

~T

 

[Francois Caron]

I'll stick with my TWENTY YEAR OLD glass lenses! They've been cut a total of three times to fit them in different frames with only a couple of very tiny marks to mar the surface. However, I can understand why many wouldn't go for them. My perscription is -3.00 diopters so my lenses are not too thick. But I can imagine the weight problems if your lenses are greater than say -5.00 or +5.00 diopters.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I do have one question though. I wanted the doc to give me an exam and prescription for glasses but just write one for contacts (so I could buy some next paycheck). He said he couldn't do both, I'd have to get a second exam just for the contacts. What's up with that? Aren't they the same?

Well, they need to find out the curvature of the eyes and size of your eyes (the iris diameter portion, I suppose) for a contact lens prescription (as well as the strength in diopters).

 

[Philip Hamm]

Whoah, Thi! What a thread resurrection! A four year old thread!!!!!! I believe that UV is built in to most every lens manufactured. Whether you pay for it or not you're most likely going to get it anyway.

 

[teapot2001]

Patrick
Thanks Philip.
It's been about ten years since I last got my eyes checked, so I needed some info for my new glasses.
~T

 

[Ken CG]

I totally regret getting the anti-glare coating on my lenses. They seem to only make it worse and good luck trying to clean them. I'm through with plastic lenses too. Next time, I'm going with glass with none of those damn coatings.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I totally regret getting the anti-glare coating on my lenses. They seem to only make it worse and good luck trying to clean them. I'm through with plastic lenses too. Next time, I'm going with glass with none of those damn coatings.

Some people don't mind the anti-glare coating, but I completely agree with you Ken. I got it once about 5 years ago and I returned the glasses and had them recut them with new lenses without the coating two weeks later. I hated the anti-glare that much. However, some people aren't sensitive to it or wash their glasses more often I suppose (the tiniest bit of dirt on anti-glare glasses causes problems).

Don't swear off plastic and polycarbonate because you had a bad experience with a specific coating. Polycarbonate lenses without the coating are freaking awesome.

 

[BrianW]

What is the purpose of anti-glare (or is it anti-reflective?) coating? Everyone talks as if the anti-glare coating benefits the one wearing the glasses, but my understanding is that its purpose is to reduce outward reflection, so other people can actually see your eyes, and not the glare of the fluorescent lights in front of you. If that's the case, of what use is it to the wearer?
I understand the way it works (which I, too, learned in physics class ), and I can see how it would cause annoying chromatic distortions for the wearer.
Is there something I'm not understanding, or is there some benefit for the wearer of which I'm not aware?

 

[Ken CG]

I noticed it causes some annoying haloing.

 

[Philip Hamm]

What is the purpose of anti-glare (or is it anti-reflective?) coating?

Well, since we're on a home theater board...... It definitely helps clarity when watching projected movies. That was the one thing I liked about it. Other than that the only point I can think of is to make more money for the people selling glasses and lens cleaning solutions.